Flood recession agriculture in the Senegal River Valley

The purpose of this paper is to explore the system dynamics, the importance and future of the low yielding flood recession farming system as practiced in the Senegal River Valley. This is discussed in relation to the introduction of irrigated agriculture into villages of the valley and to the hydrological changes of the Senegal River caused by the construction of the Manantali dam and the Sahelian drought of the 1970s and 1980s. The paper is based on data collected during three months of fieldwork in three villages located in the Podor region in Senegal. The fieldwork focused on the physical and ecological aspects of the flood recession farming system. Data was obtained through semi-structured interviews on the household level and with groups of village elders and local agricultural leaders. On the regional and national level interviews were carried out with the agricultural and water management authorities. The flood recession farming system is based on natural irrigation and fertilization of the flood plain. Sorghum, beans and melons are cultivated on the remaining soil moisture from the yearly inundations of the river valley in August and September. Flood recession farming receives no controllable input other than land and labour and therefore has a very high net return to energy expenditures. The study however shows that the labour productivity and the net income from the input intensive irrigated farming system far exceed that of the traditional flood recession farming. Nevertheless, the output front the recession farming is very important to household subsistence since the general energy requirements of the households are far front covered by the irrigated farming. The recession agriculture would then support the household subsistence during months where other contributions to the household subsistence are limited. Furthermore, results of the recession farming are strongly affected by the limited flooding that prevailed during the investigated period. The management of the Manantali dam in Mali and the varying precipitation in the upper part of the river basin cause large yearly variations in river valley inundations and thus affects the yield from recession farming. Since the farmer cannot control the access of river water to the recession fields there exists no incentive for the farmer to invest in the development of the flood recession farming system. If the system is not further developed, the future potential for recession agriculture is likely to decrease as population and subsistence demands increase and irrigated agriculture is further developed. Therefore, the future of flood recession agriculture depends for a large part on the willingness of the dam management authorities to ensure a yearly and stable inundation of recession land in years of limited natural flows. This would eliminate the insecurity of water availability and justify investments in and further development of traditional farming practices.